Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
Fishing traps, baskets, cradles, bridges, rainproof hats and umbrellas, mats, musical instruments, water pipes—Indians have always used the bamboo in numerous ways. It is used for house construction, fencing and in the making of bullock carts. Low-cost domestic furniture and a vast range of domestic utility items made of bamboo can be easily seen in any of our bazaars. But we do not easily notice the countless little ways this modest material comes to be used by rural people. One can see it being used in the blacksmith’s bellows, or as bamboo pins in carpentry joints or in the fabrication of toys in village markets. But to the British foresters the multidimensional role that “the forest weed” played in the local Indian environment was of no account, as it did not figure in forest revenues. Bamboo also interfered with the growing of teak, an essential part of their colonial forest policy. It was only in the 1920s that the British realised that by mincing bamboo into millimetre shreds, cooking it in chemicals, pulping and flattening it, they could produce sheets of paper. This would bring the British increased forest revenue and ‘development’ (as defined by them) to the so-called backward regions of India. However, they chose to ignore the consequences this activity would have on the health of the forest. So while bamboo was sold at high prices to basket weavers, it was heavily subsidised for the paper industry. Even after Independence, supplying bamboo at extremely low prices to Indian paper mills became a ‘patriotic’ duty of the government, and bamboo supplies were assured for decades at unchanged prices. The disaster that this would cause to the forests, and to the craftsperson, still remained unforeseen.
Colonialism affected forests all across India and marginalised their inhabitants and the traditional occupations they practised. As late as the 1970s, the World Bank proposed that 4,600 hectares of natural Sal forest should be replaced by tropical pine to provide pulp for the paper industry. It was only after protests by local environmentalists that the project was stopped. Colonialism was therefore not only about repression, it was also a story of displacement, impoverishment and ecological crisis.
SSC CPO 2020281)Bamboo is referred to as ‘modest material’ because:
it is inexpensive and not highly acclaimed
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
During the decade after liberalisation floriculture industries took giant steps in the export arena. This era has seen a dynamic shift from sustenance production to commercial production. The area under floriculture production in India is around 249 thousand hectares with a production of 1659 thousand tonnes loose flowers and 484 thousand tonnes cut flowers. Floriculture is now commercially cultivated in several states with Tamil Nadu (20%), Karnataka (13.5%) West Bengal (12.2%) having gone ahead of other producing states like Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Haryana, Assam and Chhattisgarh.
Government of India has identified floriculture as a sunrise industry and accorded it 100% export oriented status. Owing to steady increase in the demand of flowers, floriculture has become one of the important commercial trades in agriculture. Hence commercial floriculture has emerged as hi-tech activity-taking place under controlled climatic conditions inside greenhouse. Floriculture in India, is being viewed as a high growth industry. Commercial floriculture is becoming important from the export angle. The liberalisation of industrial and trade policies paved the way for development of export-oriented production of cut flowers.
The new seed policy had already made it feasible to import planting material of international varieties. It has been found that commercial floriculture has higher potential per unit area than most of the field crops and is therefore a lucrative business. Indian floriculture industry has been shifting from traditional flowers to cut flowers for export purposes. The liberalised economy has given an impetus to the Indian entrepreneurs for establishing export oriented floriculture units under controlled climatic conditions.
Indian floriculture industry comprises of flowers such as Rose, Tuberose, Glads, Anthurium, Carnations, Marigold etc. India's total export of floriculture was ₹571.38 crores/$81.94 million in 2018-19. The major importing countries were United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and United Arab Emirates. There are more than 300 export-oriented units in India. More than 50% of the floriculture units are based in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. With the technical
collaborations from foreign companies, the Indian floriculture industry is poised to increase its share in world trade.
SSC CPO 2020282)Which three states are the major cultivators of floriculture products?
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal
SSC CPO 2020283)The main theme of the passage is:
the rise of the floriculture industry in India
SSC CPO 2020284)The area under floriculture production in India is about:
249 thousand hectares
SSC CPO 2020285)Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
India's total export of floriculture was $571.38 million in 2018-19.
SSC CPO 2020286)What gave a major fillip to the export of Indian floriculture products?
The liberalisation of industrial and trade policies by the government.
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
Early written symbols were based on pictographs (pictures which resemble what they signify) and ideograms (symbols which represent ideas). Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese civilizations began to adapt such symbols to represent concepts, developing them into logographic writing systems. Pictographs are still in use as the main medium of written communication in some non-literate cultures in Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Pictographs are often used as simple, pictorial, representational symbols by most contemporary cultures.
Pictographs can be considered an art form, or can be considered a written language and are designated as such in Pre-Columbian art, Native American art, Ancient Mesopotamia and Painting in the Americas before Colonization. One example of many is the Rock art of the Chumash people, part of the Native American history of California.
An early modern example of the extensive use of pictographs may be seen in the map in the London suburban timetables of the London and North Eastern Railway, 1936-1947, designed by George Dow, in which a variety of pictographs was used to indicate facilities available near each station. Pictographs remain in common use today, serving as pictorial, representational signs, instructions, or statistical diagrams. Because of their graphical nature and fairly realistic style, they are widely used to indicate public toilets, or places such as airports and train stations. Because they are a concise way to communicate a concept to people who speak many different languages, pictograms have also been used extensively at the Olympics
since 1964 Summer Olympics, and are redesigned for each set of games.
Pictographs can often transcend languages in that they can communicate to speakers of a number of tongues and language families equally effectively, even if the languages and cultures are completely different. This is why road signs and similar pictographic material are often applied as global standards expected to be understood by nearly all.
A standard set of pictographs was defined in the international standard ISO 7001: Public Information Symbols. Other common sets of pictographs are the laundry symbols used on clothing tags and the chemical hazard symbols as standardised by the GHS system.
Pictograms have been popularised in use on the web and in software, better known as ‘icons’ displayed on a computer screen in order to help users navigate a computer system or mobile device.
SSC CPO 2020287)Early civilizations used symbols to represent:
concepts
SSC CPO 2020288)What is the passage mainly about ?
Use of pictographs in ancient and modern times
SSC CPO 2020289)Which of the following is an early example of use of pictographs in modern times?
London railway timetable
SSC CPO 2020290)Which of the following statements is NOT true ?
Rock art of Chumash people is part of Mesopotamian history.